Method for providing telecommunications services, related system and information technology product

ABSTRACT

A method for providing telecommunications services in an environment in which a plurality of telecommunications systems operate according to different standards (WLAN, UMTS) and are reachable from a terminal (T) in an integrated manner, wherein at least one of said services can be provided by more systems. Upon the provision request for the above-cited service, the method according to the invention envisages the steps of: —verifying the availability for the provision of the requested service, of at least a first (WLAN) and a second (UMTS) system, and —selecting, in an automatic and dynamic way, one between at least said first (WLAN) and said second (UMTS) system for the provision of the service being requested.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is the US national phase of PCT applicationPCT/EP2003/010114, filed 11 Sep. 2003, published 1 Apr. 2004 as WO2004/028190, and claiming the priority of Italian patent applicationTO2002A000824 itself filed 20 Sep. 2002, whose entire disclosures areherewith incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention concerns the provision of telecommunicationsservices in an environment where at the same time two telecommunicationssystems working according to different standards are present.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

As an example—which should however not be regarded as limiting the scopeof the invention, that is fully general—the two telecommunicationssystems may be two mobile communication systems working according to theUMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) standard and accordingto a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) standard such as for instancethe standard currently denoted as 802.11.

In the document titled “Stand-Alone Data-Cells for UMTS”, presented asTdoc FEW-0032/01 paper at the 3GPP Future Evolution Workshop held onOct. 18-19 2001 at Helsinki (Finland), there is described anarchitectural solution allowing the implementation of a full integrationof both systems; such an integration is performed in the radio mode andoffers the possibility of an optimum management of the network.

Closely related topics are discussed in the document “Location-basedRadio Resource Management in Multi Standard Wireless NetworkEnvironments” by M. Hildebrand, G. Cristache, K. David and F. Fechterpresented at the IST Mobile & Wireless Telecommunications Summit 2002,held at Thessaloniki (Greece) on Jun. 17-19, 2002. This documentemphasizes among other things the importance of defining solutions aimedat improving the throughput of such systems and providing the user withthe best service quality.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to provide a solution allowingthe optimum exploitation of the opportunities offered by such anintegration scenario.

This concerns in particular the possibility of dynamically performing anoptimum choice of the access to the integrated system, taking intoaccount the requirements of the network administrator (or of theoperator) and of the user that is requesting a service.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention, this object is attained by virtue ofa method having the characteristics specifically described in moredetail below. The invention also concerns the corresponding system andthe related information technology product, that may be directly loadedin the internal memory of a digital computing unit and incorporatesportions of software code for performing the steps of the method whenthe product is run on a computer.

In any case, though the solution according to the invention has beenworked out with specific reference to the possible application to anintegration scenario such as the one previously described, it can beadvantageously applied to any context wherein the same basic topics arefaced. Thus the solution according to the invention is applicable totelecommunications networks working according to different standardswith regard to those that have been mentioned before or will bespecifically mentioned, as well as to contexts wherein the integrationis foreseen for a number of telecommunications systems of more than two,working together in an integrated way.

The solution according to the invention makes is therefore possible toprovide telecommunications services in an environment wherein:

a plurality of telecommunications systems are foreseen that workaccording to different standard and are reachable from a terminal in anintegrated manner,

at least one of the services may be provided by more systems, thusaccording to different standards.

The solution according to the invention envisages that with regard tothe request of provision of the above-mentioned at least one service,there is the availability, for the provision of the service requested,of at least a first and a second system. Then, in an automatic anddynamic manner, a choice is made of one between the two systems for theprovision of the service requested. The selection is preferably effectedthrough an unique module, in order to allow the selection, performed inan automatic and dynamic way, of a communication resource regarded aspreferential for the provision of the service requested within theintegrated system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The invention will now be described by way of a non-limiting examplewith reference to the appended drawings, wherein

FIG. 1 depicts the general application scenario of the solutionaccording to the invention,

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating the implementation of a solutionaccording to the invention, and

FIG. 3 is a diagram to be used for the evaluation of the load conditionsof a WLAN network or a similar network in the context of the invention.

SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION

The solution according to the invention has its preferential applicationin a multi-mode scenario (i.e. a multi-system or multi-standardscenario) of the type represented in the block diagram of FIG. 1.

In principle it is foreseen that the terminals T linked to the systemare multi-mode or multi-system terminals, e.g. capable of simultaneouslysupporting various standards, such as the UMTS and a 802.11 standard.

Such terminals are therefore capable of interfacing:

the node, currently termed as node B, forming the element of the UTRAN(. UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network, term indicating the network Nof radio access to the UMTS system) suitable for the air transmission ofthe signal, without any modification with regard to the standard, and

the Access Point, AP, i.e. the element of the 802.11 system, designedfor the air transmission of the signal.

In the case of the access point AP, the information exchanged with theterminal T is essentially equivalent to the information envisaged in theAP standard mode, being however the possibility foreseen of connectionto the so called Radio Network Controller (RNC), which is of standardtype, but integrated with the functionalities designed for managing the802.11 system.

In principle, the access point AP and the controller RNC mustcommunicate with one another two parameters, namely:

the number of users linked to the WLAN network, and

the total bitrate of the active communications on the same WLAN network.

The parameters involved in the procedure are:

SIFS (Short Interframe Space) 28 μs

backoff slot time=50 μs

propagation delay=1 μs

t_(slot)=20 μs

CW min (Contention Window min)=32

CW max (Contention Window max)=256

As far as the UMTS network infrastructure is concerned, no modificationsare envisaged with regard to the so called Core Network standard, inparticular for the node, called SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node), thatinterfaces the UTRAN network.

All the above is set in an integration scenario wherein the nodes B andthe access points AP are managed preferably by an unique controller,situated in a advanced version of the current controller RNC foreseen bythe standards. Further information concerning the specific conventionalmodalities of implementation in FIG. 1 may be derived from the documentpresented at the 3 GPP Future Evolutions Workshop already mentionedbefore and from the 3GPP specifications. The latter comprises all GSMspecifications (including GPRS and EDGE) and 3G (third generation)specifications. Other terms used for the description of networks usingthe 3G specifications are: UTRAN, W-CDMA, UMTS (in Europe) and FOMA (inJapan).

Within the context described herein, the provision is in generalenvisaged of telecommunications services of different type. To definethe basic concepts (though for exemplary purposes only) reference may bemade to the standard classification of the services used for the UMTSstandard.

In such a context the conversational service is at first dealt with: itis a type or class of service used for real time calls between users, asin the case of voice and video-conference services. The transfer timemust be kept low and the time relationship between the various parts ofthe information flow must remain unchanged, so as to meet thecharacteristics of the human perception.

Then the streaming services are described for the case in which the userwishes to receive audio/video streams. It is usually a unidirectionalservice, provided by a server to a terminal, such as a mobile terminal.It is important that the time relations among the various parts of theinformation stream remain unchanged, being however not foreseenparticularly tough requirements on the information transfer times as awhole: the information is also stored at buffer level on the receivingterminal, so as to make any jitter phenomenon transparent to the humanperception.

There is then the class of interactive services, that are used wheneverthe user requests data from a mobile apparatus, as in the case of theInternet navigation or access to a network server. In this case,important factors are the so called Round Trip Delay (RTD) and the dataintegrity.

There is then the class of background services, that identifiesapplications with a low priority execution, i.e. likely to be carriedout on background. Some examples of services relating to this quality ofservice or QoS are the transmission of electronic mail messages or theso called SMS's. In such a case the time limits are not important,whilst the data integration is important.

The solution according to the invention aims at best exploiting theopportunities offered by the above-described context. This is madepossible through a technique that dynamically carries out a optimumchoice of the radio access, taking account of the requirements of thenetwork administrator (or operator) and of the user requesting theservice.

The solution described herein envisages to make a choice on the basis ofthe following parameters:

class of the service requested by the user;

availability of transmission resources (for instance, radio resources atthe UMTS side as well as at the WLAN side);

possibility of re-negotiating the service.

The solution under question works according to the following guidelines.

In principle, the UMTS standard has a 2 Mbit/s transmission capacity,whereas the 802.11b standard has a total transmission capacity equal to11 Mbit/s. The UMTS standard is additionally capable of offering bestguarantees in terms of quality of service (QoS).

The UMTS transmission resource may therefore be regarded more valuable,and that justifies the criterion of freeing or reducing as much aspossible the load of the UMTS network, in order to exploit it only forservices applying tough QoS requirements and in cases in which the WLANresource is unavailable. For the rest of it, thanks to its high bitratethe 802.11b system offers a best support for the services which do nothave particularly tough requirements in terms of QoS.

In practice, the system according to the invention can be implemented inthe form of a module 10 (making reference to FIG. 1), integrated in theRNC controller already foreseen within the integration scenario referredto in the introduction of the present invention.

La relating method of operation is illustrated in the flow chart of FIG.2.

In such a flow chart, the step denoted by 100 represents a servicerequest made by the user through the terminal T. The latter actioncauses the request to the RNC controller of its establishing a so calledRAB (Radio Access Bearer) with given characteristics.

The characteristics required for the choice described in the sequelessentially correspond to parameters such as: class of servicerequested, bit rate and possibility of re-negotiating the service.

At step 102 a check is made on whether the requested service is aservice of a conversational type. Since the WLAN standard is notadequate to support conversational services, if the test result of step102 is positive, the system directly evolves toward the step 104, wherea check is made on whether the UMTS communication resource is available.If the test result at step 104 is positive, the system further evolvestoward an additional step 106, thus making it possible for the serviceto be offered on the UMTS system. If the UMTS resource is not available(negative test result of step 104) the system evolves toward a step 108,where a check is made on whether more data rates are required.

In practice, at step 108 a check is made on whether, when the serviceunder question cannot be provided with the characteristics originallyrequested (for instance, bitrate) the service may be provided withmodified characteristics, for instance with a lower bitrate than the oneoriginally foreseen.

If the test result at step 108 is negative, the system evolves toward astep 110, notifying the impossibility of providing the service, that isnot offered.

If instead the step 108 test is positive (which states that it possibleto start a so called “re-negotiation” of the service, offering it at alower datarate), the system returns to step 104 through a re-negotiationstep 109.

The check on the availability of the UMTS resource is then carried outagain, by making reference not to the characteristics of the service soas originally requested, but to the service characteristics resultingfrom the re-negotiation, for instance with reference to a lower datarate.

The final result of this method of operation is given either by theprovision of the service on UMTS (step 106), possibly after executingfurther attempts under additionally “re-negotiated conditions (shouldthis be possible), or the definite non-provision of the service (step110).

If at step 102 it has been ascertained that the requested service is nota service of conversational type, the system evolves toward a step 112,where a check is made on whether the requested service is a streamingservice.

A service of this kind may be provided through the WLAN resource and theUMTS resource as well, the latter being however regarded (for thereasons already described before) as a more valuable resource.

For this reason, if step 112 yields a negative result, showing that theservice requested is a streaming service, the system evolves firsttoward a step 114, where a check is made on whether the WLAN resource isavailable.

If the test result of step 114 is negative, the system evolves toward astep denoted by 116, corresponding to the allocation and provision ofthe service over WLAN with the appropriate data rate.

If instead the test of step 114 gives a negative result (because it isfound out that the WLAN resource is not available: the relatingverification is effected according to criteria better explained in thesequel) the system verifies, at a subsequent step 118 the systemverifies whether instead the UMTS resource is available.

Once the availability of the UMTS resource has been verified (negativeoutcome of step 118) the system evolves toward a step 120 correspondingto the provision of the streaming service over the UMTS network.

Should the UMTS resource be unavailable (negative outcome of step 118)the system evolves toward a step 122 substantially similar to the step108, already seen previously.

Step 122 corresponds to a mechanism of possible re-negotiation of theservice performed by checking whether the streaming service requested bythe user can be provided with different data rates, in particular bymaking an attempt with a lower data rate.

Such an attempt, represented by step 124, is however performedpreferably, instead of returning toward the UMTS resource (step 118), byverifying again (step 114) the availability of the WLAN resource,regarded as less valuable and therefore to be used preferably withregard to the UMTS resource.

Also in this case, as in the case previously seen in relation to theservice of conversational type, the final outcome of the procedure iseither the service provision over UMTS (after one or more attempts madewith lower data rates-step 116) or the final notification, representedby step 126, of the impossibility of offering the service.

Substantially similar criteria (without the possibility of servicere-negotiation) are adopted for the provision of services of interactiveor background type.

In particular upon a negative outcome of step 112 (the service requestedis neither of conversational nor of streaming type) the system evolvestoward a further selection step 127, wherein a check is made on whetherthe service being requested is an interactive service.

In the case of a positive outcome, once again the systems verifies, at astep 128, the availability of the WLAN resource.

If such a resource is available (positive outcome of step 128), theservice is allocated over WLAN with the appropriate data rate (step116).

If step 128 indicates the unavailability of the resource, the systemevolves toward a step 130, where the availability of the UMTS resourceis verified.

In case of positive outcome, the system evolves toward a step 132,corresponding to the provision of the interactive service via UMTS.Should step 130 have instead a negative outcome, indicating theunavailability of the UMTS resource, the system will directly evolvetoward a step 134 corresponding to the non-provision of the service.This is due to the fact that for the service of interactive type it isusually unlikely to suggest the execution of re-negotiation attemptswith lower data-rates.

The possible negative outcome of the step denoted by 127, indicatingthat the service requested is neither of conversational nor of streamingclass, and nor of interactive class, identifies the requested service asbackground service.

Once this fact has been ascertained at a step denoted by 136, the systemevolves again toward a step 138 for checking the availability of theWLAN resource.

In the case of a positive outcome, the service is allocated over theWLAN network, identified as available.

This occurs at the step denoted 116.

If instead step 138 gives a negative outcome indicating theunavailability of the WLAN resource, the system evolves toward a step140, where a check is made on the availability of the UMTS resource.

According to criteria basically similar to those adopted at steps130,123, 134, described before, the outcome of step 140 leads as analternative either to the service provision over UMTS (step 142) or tothe notification of the impossibility of offering the service (step144).

In short, the operation criteria described above may be traced back tothe following general flow chart.

At first a check is made of the class of the service requested.

The WLAN standard is rather unsuitable to support services ofconversational type, thus this type of services is immediately routed tothe UMTS network.

Once the check has been made and it has been ascertained that therequested service is not of conversational type, the system verifieswhether or not the WLAN resource is available, by making a kind ofAdmission Control.

In practice, a check is made to verify that the addressing of the userover the WLAN does not excessively load the network, thus causing anunacceptable degradation of the overall system performance.

If the WLAN resource is available, the service is allocated over suchradio access, and the procedure ends.

If the WLAN resource is not available (or the check performed at thestart has given a positive result notifying the request of service ofconversational type), then a check is made on the availability of theUMTS resource through a procedure of Admission Control (alreadyenvisaged with the UMTS system and implemented through the RNCcontroller).

If the UMTS resource is available, the service is allocated over such aradio access, and the procedure ends.

Is the UMTS resource unavailable, then the mechanism is exploited forre-negotiating the service (only in the case of conversational servicesor streaming) and the attempt is repeated through the procedure withlower service requirements.

The procedure ends in any case after a new check of the resources. Ifthe service could be provided with lower resources, and such resourcesare available, the service is provided; otherwise no service provisionoccurs.

In the case wherein no radio resources are available for theconversational or streaming services, it is possible to re-negotiate theservice and meet the request by supplying a lower data-rate as comparedto the one initially requested.

The attempt with a lower data-rate (steps 109 and 124) essentiallycorresponds to check whether it is possible to lower the data-raterequests, by trying to control again the resource with a lower rate.

To ascertain the requested service among the various classes, a checkprocedure is envisaged at steps 102,112 and 127 on the basis of thedefinitions given before.

The service allocation over WLAN or UMTS corresponds to the fact thatthe relating check on the resource has given a positive outcome, and theservice is provided through the radio access or the 802.11b or UMTSstandards.

The service is not offered when the procedures end without thepossibility of providing the requested service because no radioresources are available to meet the service requirements.

With regard to the availability verification of the resources, in thecase of the UMTS resource it is possible to perform the verification bymeans of the formula (commonly known as such) derived from thedefinition of the so called “pole capacity”. In the “uplink” case, sucha formula is thenη=(l+f)*SNR*SAF

Such a formula corresponds to the definition of the 11 parameter,identifying the cell load, standardized with regard to the maxtheoretical value, For example, it is possible to take into account aloaded cell, when this parameter is equal to 0.7.

By f a parameter is meant that takes account of the interferencecontribution caused by the cells adjacent to the cell under question.

SNR stands for the signal-to-noise ratio required, i.e. the ratio signalto noise necessary in order that a given service is well supported.

Eventually, the parameter denoted by SAF (Service Activity Factor)indicates the average time slot during which the source is active.

The above formula makes reference to an individual customer. The totalvalue is obtained by computing the partial value of the parameter (i.e.calculating its value for each active connection) and summing up all theterms thus obtained. This formula supplies an approximate estimation ofthe network load and can therefore be used to schematize the behavior ofthe admission control and thereby to obtain the answer to the questionabout the available UMTS resource.

The solution just described is a purposely simplified example of controladmission technique. In general the admission control techniques aremore sophisticated since they take into account for instance the load onthe down-link connection and the availability of spreading codes inaddition to the exploitation of information derived from powermeasurements.

With regard to the access to the WLAN network, a particularlyadvantageous solution is the one which describes the performancedegradation of the system as the number of users increases. This makesit possible to provide a kind of admission control criterion by derivingthe capacity of the 802.11 standard as a function of the number ofactive users. The diagram of FIG. 3, obtained from the processing of theparameters already mentioned before (i.e. Short Interframe Space,backoff time, propagation delay, slot time, min. and max ContentionWindow), represents the rate value standardized to the value of the maxtheoretical bit rate, equal for example to 11 Mbit/s for the 802.11bsystem, as a function of the number of users.

In other terms, if the active users on the WLAN are for instance 30,these users will have at their disposal (making reference to the diagramof FIG. 3) a total of about 6,457 Mbit/s, which are then subdividedamong all the users.

It is therefore possible to check whether the bit rate totally availableis sufficient to provide the service requested by all the users.

As a practical example (making jointly reference to the flow chart ofFIG. 2 and to the diagram of FIG. 3) we consider the case of a usersrequest for a streaming service with a 384 kbit/s that can be met alsowith a 144 kbit/s bit rate.

Assuming that at the moment 32 users are active on the WLAN (thus theavailable bit rate is equal, with reference to the FIG. 3 diagram, to6,3349 Mbit/s) and the load of the UMTS cell is assumed to be close tothe max. value of 0.7. The system is therefore close to the maximum loadcondition.

The evolution through the flow chart of FIG. 3 is therefore thefollowing.

Is the service of a conversational type? No.

Is it a streaming service? Yes.

The question is now whether the WLAN resource is available or not.

Assume that, over the WLAN, 32 users are connected (max bit rateavailable 0.5759*11=6.349 Mbit/s) and that the load on such a network isequal to 6,000 Mbit/s. The thirty-third user needs, as specified before,a 384 kbit/s streaming service which can be met also with a 144 kbit/sbit rate.

The control that has been effected is the following.

The new bit rate available is 0.5706*11=6.2766 Mbit/s. Adding to theload value the bitrate of the request of the new user one obtains thevalue 6,000+384=6,384 Mbit/s, which exceeds the availability.

Is the WLAN resource available? No.

The UMTS cell is close to the value of max. load, therefore the requestcannot be met by the UMTS either.

The UMTS resource is available? No.

A question then arises: Is it possible to re-negotiate the service? Yes.

The attempt is made now with 144 kbit/s, and the control effectedenvisages to sum up to the load data the bit-rate of the (second)request, and this brings to the value of 6,000+144=6,144, Mbit/s, sothat the availability is not exceeded.

We ask then again:

Is the WLAN resource available?

The question receives this time a positive answer (Yes). The service isthen allocated on the WLAN network with the appropriate data-ratemodified, i.e. reduced as compared to the data-rate initially requested.

A similar criterion can be followed for the other WLAN systems whereinuse is made of numerical values typical for them, without affecting atall the decision process herein described.

Obviously, keeping unchanged the principle of the invention, the detailsof implementation and the forms of embodiment may be widely varied, withrespect to what has been described and illustrated herein, thus withoutleaving the scope and the spirit of the present invention.

In particular it will be appreciated i in at least a few applicationcases—one or more of the sets or sub-sets mentioned in the claims thatfollow, actually correspond to the empty set. Further it is evident thatthe characteristic “deliverable” (i.e. available) or “not deliverable”(i.e. unavailable), ascribed to a given service with a view to itspossible provision through a given system, must not be meant in aabsolute physical sense and must be instead reasonably referred to thepossibility of providing a given service under the conditions and with aquality level that are acceptable to the users.

1. A method for the provision of telecommunications services in anenvironment in which there are a plurality of systems working accordingto different standards and reachable from a terminal in an integratedway, at least one of the telecommunications services being provided byseveral systems of the plurality, the method, with regard to the requestof provision of the at least one telecommunication service, comprisingthe steps of: verifying the availability for the provision of therequested telecommunication service of at least a first and a secondsystem of the plurality, the first telecommunication system forming withrespect to the second telecommunication system a resource to beexploited in a preferential way, and exploiting the resource in thepreferential way by selecting, in an automatic and dynamic way, at leastone of the first and the second system of the plurality for theprovisioning of the requested telecommunication service by subdividingthe telecommunication services into a first set of telecommunicationservices to be substantially provided through the secondtelecommunication system, wherein the first set of telecommunicationservices comprises services of a conversational class, and a second setof telecommunication services to be provided through the firsttelecommunication system and the second telecommunication system,responsive to a request for a provision of a telecommunication serviceof the first set, verifying the availability of the secondtelecommunication system for providing the telecommunication service ofthe first set, supplying or not supplying, respectively, thetelecommunication service of the first set through the secondtelecommunication system, depending on whether the secondtelecommunication system is available, responsive to a request for aprovision of a telecommunication service of the second set, verifyingthe availability of the first telecommunication system for providing thetelecommunication service of the second set, and providing thetelecommunication service of the second set through the firsttelecommunication system when the first telecommunication system isavailable, and when the first telecommunication system is unavailablefor transmission of the telecommunication service of the second set,verifying the availability of the second telecommunication system toprovide the telecommunication service of the second set and providing ornot providing the telecommunication service of the second set, asrequested, depending on whether the second telecommunication system isavailable for provision of the telecommunication service of the secondset, wherein the first telecommunication system is not configured tosatisfy the initial Quality of Service (QoS) levels of the first set oftelecommunication services, wherein the second telecommunication systemis configured to satisfy the initial QoS levels of the first set oftelecommunication services, wherein the first telecommunication systemis configured to transmit more bits per second as compared to the secondtelecommunication system, and detecting the availability of the secondtelecommunication system by defining a load parameter of the secondtelecommunication system and by considering the second telecommunicationsystem as unavailable when the load parameter reaches a threshold value,wherein the load parameter is based on uplink load as a function of aninterference contribution, signal to noise ratio, and a service activityfactor.
 2. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein the selecting stepis carried out so as to find, within the first set, a subset oftelecommunication services that is available to be provided in at leasta condition of modified communication resources, the presence of aprovision request for a telecommunication service of the subsetincluding the steps of: verifying the unavailability of the secondtelecommunication system for the provision of the telecommunicationservice of the subset as requested and, once the unavailability has beenverified, re-negotiating the provision request whereby thetelecommunication service of the subset is again requested for theprovision in a condition of modified communication resources.
 3. Themethod as recited in claim 2 wherein the selecting step is carried outso as to lead, within the second set, to a respective subset oftelecommunication services that are deliverable in at least onecondition of modified communication resources, and, when there is aprovision request for a telecommunication service of the respectivesubset, the selecting step comprises the steps of: verifying theunavailability of at least one between the first and the second systemfor the provision of the telecommunication service of the respectivesubset as requested and, after verifying the unavailability,re-negotiating the provision request, the provision of thetelecommunication service of the respective subset being requested againin a condition of modified communication resources.
 4. The method asrecited in claim 3 wherein the selecting step is carried out so as to beable to lead, within at least one between the set and the respectivesubset, to telecommunication services that are available to be providedunder a plurality of conditions of modified communication resources, themethod further comprising the step of: repeatedly re-negotiating therequest for service provision under subsequently modified communicationresources.
 5. The method as recited in claim 3 wherein the second setincludes streaming class services.
 6. The method as recited in claim 1wherein the second set comprises services included in at least one classamong the classes of streaming services, interactive services, andbackground services.
 7. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein theselecting step is carried out by selecting the systems in the groupformed by the mobile communication systems.
 8. The method as recited inclaim 7 wherein the selecting step is carried out by selecting thesystems in the group formed by UMTS, WLAN and 802.11 systems.
 9. Themethod as recited in claim 1, further comprising the step of: verifyingthe availability of the first telecommunication system on the basis of acriterion of admission control of the users by detecting the performancedegradation of the first telecommunication system as the number of usersincreases.
 10. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising thesteps of: detecting the total bit rate available to the active users onthe first telecommunication system, and considering the firsttelecommunication system as unavailable for a new user when the bit rateavailable upon the possible admission of the new user reaches athreshold value.
 11. A system for providing telecommunications servicesin an environment wherein a plurality of telecommunications systems areprovided that operate according to different standards and that areconfigured to be accessed from a terminal in an integrated manner, atleast one of the telecommunication services being deliverable by morethan one of the telecommunications systems of the plurality, the systembeing configured, when there is a provision request for the at least onetelecommunication service, to cooperate with the plurality oftelecommunications systems and comprising: a processor; and a memoryhaving stored thereon instructions that, when executed by the processor,perform: verifying the availability for the provision of thetelecommunication service requested, of at least a first and a secondsystem of the plurality of telecommunications systems, and selecting, inan automatic and dynamic way, between the first and the second system ofthe plurality for the provision of the telecommunication servicerequested, the first system forming with respect the second system aresource to be exploited preferentially, the selecting including a)subdividing the telecommunication services into a first set oftelecommunication services to be substantially provided through thesecond telecommunication system, wherein the first set oftelecommunication services comprises services of a conversational class,and a second set of telecommunication services to be provided throughthe first telecommunication system and the second telecommunicationsystem, b) verifying the availability of the second telecommunicationsystem for providing the telecommunication service of the first set asrequested, supplying or not supplying respectively the telecommunicationservice of the first set through the second telecommunication system,depending on whether the second telecommunication system is available,c) when a request for provision of a telecommunication service of thesecond set is received, c1) verifying the availability of the firsttelecommunication system in order to provide the telecommunicationservice of the second set and providing the telecommunication service ofthe second set through the first telecommunication system when the firsttelecommunication system is available, c2) when the firsttelecommunication system is unavailable for transmission of thetelecommunication service of the second set, verifying the availabilityof the second telecommunication system to provide the telecommunicationservice of the second set and providing or not providing thetelecommunication service of the second set depending on whether thesecond telecommunication system is available for provision of thetelecommunication service of the second set, wherein the firsttelecommunication system is not configured to satisfy the initialQuality of Service (QoS) levels of the first set of telecommunicationservices, wherein the second telecommunication system is configured tosatisfy the initial QoS levels of the first set of telecommunicationservices, wherein the first telecommunication system is configured totransmit more bits per second as compared to the secondtelecommunication system, and detecting the availability of the secondtelecommunication system by defining a load parameter of the secondtelecommunication system and by considering the second telecommunicationsystem as unavailable when the load parameter reaches a threshold value,wherein the load parameter is based on uplink load as a function of aninterference contribution, signal to noise ratio, and a service activityfactor.
 12. The system as recited in claim 11 wherein the instructions,when executed by the processor, further perform: determining thepresence, within the first set, of a subset of telecommunicationservices deliverable in at least a condition of reduced communicationresources, and, when receiving a provision request of atelecommunication service of the subset, verifying the unavailability ofthe second telecommunication system for the provision of thetelecommunication service of the subset as requested, and, once theunavailability has been verified, re-negotiating the provision request,the telecommunication service of the subset being requested again forthe provision in a condition of reduced communication resources.
 13. Thesystem as recited in claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executedby the processor, further perform: determining, within the second set oftelecommunication services, a respective subset of telecommunicationservices configured to be provided in at least a condition of reducedcommunication resources, and when receiving a provision request for atelecommunication service of the respective subset, verifying theunavailability of at least one between the first and second system forthe provision of the telecommunication service of the respective subsetas requested and, once the unavailability has been verified,re-negotiating the provision request such that provision of thetelecommunication service of the respective subset is requested again ina condition of reduced communication resources.
 14. The system asrecited in claim 13, wherein the instructions, when executed by theprocessor, further perform: providing at least one of the set and therespective subset of telecommunication services in a plurality ofconditions of modified communication resources, and repeatedlyre-negotiating the request for telecommunication service provision underconditions of subsequently modified communication resources.
 15. Thesystem as recited in claim 13, wherein the services of the second setare services of a streaming class.
 16. The system as recited in claim11, wherein the second set of telecommunication services comprisestelecommunication services included in at least one class among theclasses of the streaming services, interactive services, and backgroundservices.
 17. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein the system isconfigured to co-operate with mobile communication systems, includingthe telecommunications systems of the plurality.
 18. The system asrecited in claim 17, wherein the system is configured to co-operate withtelecommunications systems included in the group formed by UMTS, WLANand 802.11 systems.
 19. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein thestep of verifying the availability of the first telecommunication systemcomprises verifying the availability of the first telecommunicationsystem on the basis of a criterion of admission control of users thereofby detecting performance degradation of the first telecommunicationsystem as the number of users increases.
 20. The system as recited inclaim 19, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor,further perform: detecting a total bit rate available to users active onthe first telecommunication system, and considering the firsttelecommunication system unavailable for a new user when the bit rateavailable following the possible admission of the new user reaches athreshold value.
 21. A non-transitory computer-readable medium havingstored thereon instructions that, when executed, perform: verifying theavailability for the provision of a requested telecommunication serviceof at least a first and a second system, of a plurality oftelecommunication systems, the first telecommunication system formingwith respect to the second telecommunication system a resource to beexploited in a preferential way, and exploiting the resource in thepreferential way by selecting, in an automatic and dynamic way, at leastone between the first and the second system of the plurality for theprovision of the requested telecommunication service by subdividing thetelecommunication services into a first set of telecommunicationservices to be substantially provided through the secondtelecommunication system, wherein the first set of telecommunicationservices comprises services of a conversational class, and a second setof telecommunication services to be provided through the firsttelecommunication system and the second telecommunication system,responsive to a request for provision of a telecommunication servicefrom the first set, verifying the availability of the secondtelecommunication system for providing the telecommunication service ofthe first set, supplying and not supplying respectively thetelecommunication service of the first set through the secondtelecommunication system, depending on whether or not the secondtelecommunication system is available, responsive to a request forprovision of a telecommunication service of the second set, verifyingthe availability of the first telecommunication system in order toprovide the telecommunication service of the second set and providingthe telecommunication service of the second set through the firsttelecommunication system when the first telecommunication system isavailable, when the first telecommunication system is unavailable fortransmission of the telecommunication service of the second set,verifying the availability of the second telecommunication system toprovide the telecommunication service of the second set and providing ornot providing the telecommunication service of the second set dependingon whether the second telecommunication system is available forprovision of the telecommunication service of the second set, asrequested, wherein the first telecommunication system is not configuredto satisfy the initial Quality of Service (QoS) levels of the first setof telecommunication services, wherein the second telecommunicationsystem is configured to satisfy the initial QoS levels of the first setof telecommunication services, wherein the first telecommunicationsystem is configured to transmit more bits per second as compared to thesecond telecommunication system, and detecting the availability of thesecond telecommunication system by defining a load parameter of thesecond telecommunication system and by considering the secondtelecommunication system as unavailable when the load parameter reachesa threshold value, wherein the load parameter is based on uplink load asa function of an interference contribution, signal to noise ratio, and aservice activity factor.